A former grant administrator who pleaded guilty to embezzling roughly $17,000 in federal funds avoided jail time Thursday (March 27), when she was instead sentenced to one year of probation.

Schwann Sumas, who administered a grant for the New Orleans Regional Business Park to be used to train small business owners in eastern New Orleans, pleaded guilty in January to pocketing federal funds by filing fraudulent reports detailing meetings with fictional businesses.

Sumas appeared before U.S. District Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown, who sentenced Sumas to one year of probation and ordered her to repay the $17,000 she stole. Sumas had faced up to six months in prison, and up to five years probation.

When Brown asked Sumas, whose friends and family had sent numerous letters of support to the court, to explain her actions, Sumas expressed "my apology for my lack of judgment," and pledged to "move forward and use better judgment."

Sumas' conduct was first reported by WVUE Fox 8 News. Businessman Ed Shanklin, who was identified in documents obtained by the station as the owner of a company he'd never heard of, told the station that he had never taken part in Sumas' program.

Sumas had also billed the state for work with CTK Support Services, whose owner was identified in documents as Clarice Thomas, according to the station. The address listed on the documents led back to a post office box of a City Hall employee, who is Sumas' mother. WVUE reported that on each of the five days the company billed the state, Thomas was actually working at City Hall.